Ask HN: Making vs. Learning -- what should be my ratio?

#1

Post by Taft » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 9:41 PM UTC

I'm always one engaging conversation away from starting a new programming/writing/music/film project, despite the inconvenient fact that I'm almost never learned enough to actualize an idea to its fullest.

I got ideas; I don't got skills.

There's also this insidious tendency that I have, where I finally sit down to do some solid learnin'. Once I grasp something novel, the implications of how I can use it fill my mind. Then the temptation to shift from learn-mode to create-mode gets so distracting that I stop learning effectively.

I encounter variations of this balancing act in many areas of my life. I'm in high school, so there's always a vague hope that college will change things, but from what I've read online and heard from friends, college isn't a problem-fixer as much as it is a momentum-machine for those who want to learn and apply skills. I'm afraid I'll be faced with these same problems 5 years from now. I'm afraid I'll be half-good at a lot of things.

Re: Ask HN: Making vs. Learning -- what should be my ratio?

#2

Post by nibo » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 10:39 PM UTC

It really depends on your ambitions. My opinion is that if you are "one engaging conversation away from starting a new programming/writing/music/film project" you ultimately have something entrepreneurial inside you and you want to MAKE something.

In this case, my humble advice is to not care if you don't have the skills. Start doing and you will learn. By "doing" I mean even the smallest thing: start a blog about what you want to do (I am sure you can do that), create a Facebook group to involve people and then evolve from there. If you are really excited about what you want to do you will find people ready to help you along the way. So don't worry if you don't have the skills to create something. You can still be good at engaging other people, the ones with the skills you need.

I personally think that being aware of your own strenghts and weaknesses is very important for every entrepreneur.

Howard Schultz, founder of Startbucks, many years ago said the best advice he got was to "Hire the skills you don't have" (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/...)

Add the learning part when you are already making. You will understand much more. When Facebook was getting bigger young Zuck started to read Peter Drucker's essays. And I am sure those pages where really teaching him a lot because he already did some much. They were not theoretical notions.

Hope I am answer your question.

Re: Ask HN: Making vs. Learning -- what should be my ratio?

#3

Post by mlanza » Sat, Aug 20, 2011, 10:56 PM UTC

It's important to learn your whole life long but as far as making vs. learning goes this is an easy one: you should be far more heavily slanted toward "making".

I used to read voraciously about everything because I wanted to do things the "right way." You don't learn much at all by just reading. It's when you learn the thing while you're doing it that it matters even if you're making lots of mistakes.

Be more disposed toward doing. It's the better route to success.